Living for Hope
by Nightmarescribe
Summary: Razaya Cycle 5: Starting at series end, Razer looks for Aya, throughout the galaxy. What happens when he finds her?
1. Blue Shift

**_Maltus:_**

_From times untold they come; after the battle, the scavengers arrive. In the aftermath of the Green Lantern's battle at Maltus, the original homeworld of the Guardians, there was no flesh to draw vultures or vermin, but there was abundant debris to draw the spacefarer's equivalent - the junkers. And there was junk aplenty to be found. Hordes of deactivated Manhunters and their no longer powered staves, the Anti-Monitor's empty shell, broken war vessels and the structure that held the gateway to the Beginning of all things._

_Working circuits had the most value, followed by repairable components. The least important type of refuse were refined metals; the basic component for the machinery that made life among the stars possible. Among a load of scrap metal gathered by the salvager guilds, was an ancient and derelict Green Lantern Battery. Scooped up along with all the other bits of junk materials, the battery tumbled into the cavernous hold of a wrecker tug. If anyone had been around to see, they might have seen a small but recurrent green glow from the battered lens, growing minutely brighter as the pulse went on..._

**_Odym:_**

In the depths of space, Razer poured on the speed for Odym. His ring was becoming subtly weaker, and he was well aware of the reasons why. The drain began even before he admitted to Aya that there was no hate in his heart for her. His current mission would only accelerate the process; he was driven now by determination, hope, and love, and none of those things could feed his Red ring. He sought St. Walker, well known for his wanderings throughout the Galaxy. Maybe St. Walker knew something, _anything_, that might give Razer a clue as to where he might go next. His Red ring flickered, but he didn't have far to go now. Dredging up the ashes of his self-hate for hurting Aya[*], he flung himself into the atmosphere of the Blue Lantern's planet.

_Gnartz!_ Planetary re-entry was _not_ a good time to have a failing power ring. He was falling more than flying as the thin upper atmospheric clouds shred around his plummeting body, barely managing a heat shield. Annoyance at the absurdity of the situation was enough to stoke a few surges of Red power that he put to use forming a parachute and glider wings to slow his descent. Ring constructs weren't easy for a Red; most used their power as raw energy bolts, or auras of flame. Maybe it was his time in the company of Greens, his engineering skills, or studying concentration techniques with St. Walker, but he didn't think any other Red Lantern had as much control of constructs as he had. This unique ability would likely be the only thing to make this landing one he could walk away from.

In the thicker middle atmosphere, his chute tore away, and the wings were barely stable enough to guide his fall. Time to start picking a landing place. He spotted a thick forest, but not likely thick enough to break his fall without breaking his bones in the process. There! A medium sized lake. He was from an arid world, but the water looked good to him right now. Tilting the leading edge of his Red glider wings carefully, he aimed into a broad descending spiral that would center on the lake. For the lowest spirals above the water, he curled his lower wing edges to scoop more air and slow him even more. He was only a few hundred feet above the lake and contemplating how best to enter the water when his concentration was shattered by a familiar voice.

"May I be of any assistance, Brother Razer?"

Razer looked up at St. Walker, startled, when his ring took advantage of the Blue Lantern's proximity to fail him completely. He spasmed in mid air as the Red energy gouted out of him for the last time, leaving him in his civilian garb, and plummeting to the cold water below. The impact of the water was like a blow to the gut, and he struggled to right himself. He tread water inexpertly, getting soaked to the skin as he gasped to get his breath back.

St. Walker tilted his head to the side, saying. "I would have offered earlier, but I thought you were performing some sort of aerial sport, and I didn't want to interrupt."

Annoyance put a snarl on his face, but he kept his tone relatively even, "Of course, because I _always_ go skydiving from orbit with a failing power ring."

St. Walker raised an eyebrow and flew closer to Razer. "The Red energy has abandoned you?" He lowered a construct platform to Razer, who climbed up on it wearily, and then tossed the recalcitrant Red ring into the depths. "We are near our community, where you can dry off and get something to eat."

Razer nodded as the shore approached, "That sounds good, thank you."

"What brings you to Odym today, my friend? I have heard of the difficulties with Aya, and thought you'd be trying to help her."

Razer looked down, not answering immediately. "We did get through to her, bringing her back to herself, but what she had set in motion was still a threat. She created a virus to wipe out her program within the Manhunters, but could not exclude herself from being taken by it as well." He looked over at St. Walker as they reached the shore, "I came to you because I believe she is still out there. You have travelled widely, can you think of anywhere I can go to begin my search?"

At the edge of the rough settlement, St. Walker alighted to the ground, and Razer stepped off the platform. The first Blue Lantern gave him a probing look. "Some might say it foolish to Hope to find someone who has so thoroughly destroyed herself. Are you sure this is the path you wish to take from here?"

"I have to," Razer said, "I know she is somewhere out there, and I will not stop until I find her." He sighed. "Looks like I'll need a starship to undertake it, though." He took off his head covering and wrung the water from it, and then tousled his sodden gray overhairs so they would dry faster.

St. Walker looked past him, and concealed a smile behind his hand. "It seems the answer to your initial dilemma is at hand. my friend. I wondered why an unclaimed Blue ring would head here to its source at such speeds. It seems to have been following you."

Razer turned back to the lake, and spotted the ring that smoothly flew along their path, coming to a stop before him. He reached out and took it, shaking his head. "I'm glad it waited until I wasn't in deep space to choose me, it would have been unfortunate if I was suddenly exposed to vacuum." He put the ring on and it flared blue, clothing him in a tightly fitted black and navy Lantern uniform, but left his still damp hair and head uncovered.

"You make a fine Blue Lantern," St. Walker said with a laugh. "I am pleased that Rage has been purged from your heart. Now we'll see if we can provide you some hospitality."

Ganthet and the other Blues welcomed Razer among them, and while they ate, St. Walker thought about Razer's request. "After the last time you were here, I chanced to encounter a Star Sapphire, and you came up in our conversation. She mentioned that you once took a Zamaron portal to reach Aya in a time of need, perhaps..."

"Of course!" Razer shot to his feet. "I need to go to Zamaron, immediately!"

He started for the door, and St. Walker took hold of his arm. "Razer, you should rest before you go further on your journey."

Razer shook his head stubbornly, "Not. Happening. I feel well enough, I'm going now."

St. Walker released his hold. "I will not stop you from following your heart, Brother. But promise me you will check by here often so we may exchange information having to do with your search."

Razer nodded, "I promise you, St. Walker, we will confer often."

**_Zamaron:_**

Razer entered the atmosphere of Zamaron like a deep blue shooting star. The hope that had been kindled in his heart made this very different from his not quite controlled approach to Odym. He barely registered the Star Sapphires patrolling planetary orbit as he sped by them. He only slowed as he approached the Palace, because of a defensive cluster of Violet ring-bearers that rose to bar his way from coming closer. "Hold, Blue Lantern! All visitors must check in before approaching the planet, now."

"My apologies," Razer said. "It wasn't required the other times I was here."

"I know that voice," a Star Sapphire said, coming forward from the others to meet him. "You are Razer, formerly a Red Lantern."

Razer bowed his head, "Queen Aga'po of Zamaron, I have come to ask an urgent boon of you."

"Congratulations on leaving the acolytes of Rage," she said. "But you are a friend to us, so please accompany me to the Palace."

A tight smile crossed his face, as he descended beside her, "Seems to me I was headed there already."

She nodded, "We felt the need to increase our security since the Aya-Monitor's attack."

He flinched visibly, and when he spoke, his tension was clear. "Understandable." They landed in the throne room, and he couldn't help but give an intense stare at the crystal cluster in the center of the large circular room.

The queen's face was stern when she stood before her throne and turned to him. "What is it that you want of me, Razer of Volkreig?"

"I... want you to open a Violet portal for me. That is the very reason I have this Blue ring," he said. "I need to find Aya once more, and this is the first way I've come up with so far." He held her gaze levelly, raising his chin defiantly in the face of the disapproval he sensed from her.

"May I suggest you follow the trail of destroyed star systems she left in her wake?" she replied acidly. "Perhaps the shades of her victims could point out the way."

He shook his head. "No, that is a false trail. All of the systems she demolished were uninhabited! She had no victims."

Aga'po narrowed her eyes, "Not even Ghia'ta?"

That statement staggered him, and his gaze dropped to the floor, but he rallied to answer her. "Yes, she created the situation that led to your niece to sacrifice herself, but the guilt for that is not truly hers. It's mine."

"Yours?" Aga'po said, surprised. "What do you mean?"

"_I_ was the one who drove Aya to that madness, and I helped bring her back." He used his ring to melt the blue uniform away from his broad chest to briefly reveal the swath of faded scars there." "Not more than a day ago I was dying from these injuries. She blasted me when she thought I was attacking her. Between Hal Jordan telling her what she really was, and the sight the injuries she caused me, she finally overcame her broken heart... that _I_ was responsible for breaking."

"You could not break what a machine couldn't possibly posses!" Aga'po hissed.

"I could spend hours telling you all the reasons you are wrong, but I haven't the time," he snapped. "So instead, I challenge you! Read my mind and heart again, and see the truth of all of this." Desperation humbled him, and he approached the Zamaron queen and knelt before her, bowing his head, as if in supplication.

...

She stared down at his stone gray hair, struggling with Rage of her own, and not wanting to risk learning anything that would challenge the fury she nursed in her heart. Patiently, the hunter waited on her, until he spoke again, gently, "Rage can be sweet, your Majesty, but ultimately it can only destroy. I know that, now."

She sighed at the irony of being counseled against Rage by a former Red, and put her hand on his shaggy head. Swiftly she ran through his memories and experiences since the last time she had scanned him. The revelation of Aya as a living being, although of an unusual sort, was unexpected, but it explained many things. The ups and downs of Aya's and Razer's interactions inspired only her pity and compassion for the two lovers.

...

She took her hand away, "Are you sure you don't want a Violet ring? I believe you could use one."

He stood, his consternation obvious. "Ah, no, your Majesty. I'm happy with this one."

"I should _hope_ so," she said with a small smile. "I will never forget my loss. But perhaps, now I can begin to forgive."

He breathed a sigh of relief. "Then you will make a portal?"

"I will _try_," she said. "But your own memories must tell you that this is unlikely to work." She approached the central crystals and channeled her energies to them. The violet portal began to form, flickering, fluxing, but not stabilizing. She frowned and poured more power into it, fighting to complete the conduit. As she worked, it would take on a fully formed oval, but only a fraction of a second at a time. Despite her efforts, it finally collapsed. She shook her head, her breathing heavy, "It's not working. Very strange..."

His fists clenched, and he scowled. "What does it mean?" he said, his voice hoarse with tension.

"I... I don't know," she said. "I've never had this happen. Usually if the loved one is... _truly_ gone, I cannot even begin to open a portal. This... beginning to activate, but not completing? It's unknown territory for me." He gave her an anguished expression, so she elaborated, "This side tried to form, but the other end could not find a place to open. Whom you seek is out there, but currently... she cannot be located. The other side of the portal was jumping all over the galaxy. It's possible that the copies of her programming within Manhunters that haven't contracted the virus yet have confused the portal."

A heartsick sigh of frustration and disappointment escaped him, as he scrubbed at his weary eyes. "So, you cannot help me."

"I cannot help you by making a portal," she acknowledged. "But consider what you are searching for. Her true self, as Scar and your own observations have told you, is one of pure energy. A virus did not, and _could_ not, destroy such energy. That portal would not try to open for a mere copy of a program. Your affection is directed towards the living essence of Aya, and right now, that energy has no host. But I too believe she still exists."

He sank down tiredly on one of the red benches arranged around the central crystals, fighting his nagging pessimism. "It is more than '_just a feeling'_ now," he said, "Thank you, your Majesty."

As she had the first time they met, Aga'po offered him a drink in a tall fluted glass as she sat beside him. "Hope needs a rested mind, Razer, and your weariness is obvious. I offer you lodging until you are ready to take up your search again."

He took the glass with a crooked smile, "Thank you, again. St. Walker also advised I rest, but I couldn't stop yet." He drained the glass, and followed a Star Sapphire courtier who guided him to his rooms.

He slept well, and when he rose and washed the next morning, his need to continue his searching was urgent. When he came to the outer room of his suite, the small table had several new items on it.

First was a hand-held computer programmed to track Aya's virus, as measured from public reports of disabled Manhunters from starship logs and inhabited planets. From its origin at Maltus, it seemed that the virus forced each affected Manhunter to transmit a renewed pulse of itself before the automaton shut down. By this method, it passed along the robot's communications network, starting with those nearest to the battle at Maltus and spreading in a roughly spherical wave outward toward the fringes of the galaxy. A note from Aga'po left to him on the device asked him to return once the virus had reached its postulated furthest limits, and destroyed all the false copies of Aya's program.

_"That makes sense,"_ he thought to himself. The next object was a box of nano-papers printed with Aya's likeness and particulars. Made of tough yet remarkably thin sheets of material, this one box contained many thousands of flyers that he could pass out on his travels. Each sheet held a tremendous amount of information; when touched, an image became animated, and blocks of basic text would yield more data when selected. The flyers asked an informant to contact himself, the planets of Odym or Zamaron if they had anything to report. He touched the picture of Aya's face, and watched it animate, her face turning to one side and changing expressions. It hurt him deeply to look at, yet served to remind him of why he was searching.

Putting the flyers down, the last offering was a bundle of Navy blue and black cloth. Shaking it out, it glittered with Blue energy when his ring touched it. It was an overcoat with a voluminous hood, and wide sleeves that belted at his waist, and trailed into tails, both in front and back. Examining it closely, it concealed armor within, and had a multitude of pockets and pouches on the exterior and more hidden in the linings. He put it on, finding it complimented his ring-given uniform nicely. Two pockets on the interior front were perfectly sized for the flyers, and he quickly divided the stack between them. He dropped the hand-comp in another pocket, and reached up to bring the big hood up to cover his gray hair. He sighed in relief, only now realizing his discomfort over his head being always bare.

Eating the covered meal that also waited for him, he placed a small pile of journey rations into more of his pockets. He wrote of note of thanks to his host for all she had done, and then going out onto the balcony off his chambers, he lifted up in the air, and headed to the stars once again.

**_Volkrieg:_**

His entry to Volkrieg's atmosphere was slow and searching. Once more, he located the ruins of his old home and farm, hovering overhead, and picking out the weed-tangled boundaries of his fields by the morning sunlight. He didn't enter the house; he didn't need to. Rambler roses were all over the property, stretching out tendrils over the dry ground, and climbing over the crumbling structures where his life with Ilyana took place. He sat on a low wall of stacked stones that once bordered her kitchen garden, and plucked a blue posey from a nearby vine, and looked at it closely. Breathing in its sharp scent, and feeling it in his hand, he closed his eyes, remembering...

_...proudly presenting flowers as trophies to Ilyana when he wrangled the pernicious vines from choking out his sparse crops, and seeing her accept them as precious gifts from the man she loved..._

_...holding out a blossom to Aya, her clean white coverings in stark contrast to the dusty rooms he had once lived in. That bittersweet almost-moment when he leaned down to kiss Aya..._

He held the bloom in his left hand, and focused his mind on creating a duplicate of the flower with his ring. His first try at modeling it was pitiful. He was good at constructs... for a former Red, but the delicate curves and spikes of the rambler were initially beyond him. Rookie Greens drilled on constructs on Oa, and Ganthet brought those drills to the Blues on Odym. Reds usually just lashed out with flares of the raw burning Red energy, never bothering much with trying to shape it.

The longer he'd lived on the _Interceptor_ alongside Greens_,_ the more he worked on making constructs in the privacy of his room, pushing himself to surpass his previous efforts in size, complexity, or function. When he spent time with Saint Walker to help master his Rage, the Blue gave him the basics of mental concentration and visualization. At first, if he looked at what he was trying to make, he'd often rush it, wanting the same instant results that the rough Red energy usually gave. These new tools fueled the next step in his improvement.

His friend had him try another tactic, asking Razer to close his eyes and use his talents of engineering to model the object in painstaking detail in his mind. Designing it on an internal drafting board, of sorts, and then he'd release the energy to create it. His construct work improved after that, but it was still a work in progress.

He plucked the petals from the flower, laying them out in arrays, deconstructing the bloom. Memorizing each part and piece, from all angles, he closed his eyes and began drafting. Layer by layer, he assembled the flower in his mind, and let the energy flow, and then looked at what he'd made, and frowned at his results. Time and again, he tried to perfect an accurate depiction, sacrificing a dozen other weed blossoms to study the ways they grew and arranged their petals.

The shadows were lengthening again before he was satisfied with his results. He had a promise to himself to keep, to show Aya how he felt with a kiss _when_ he found her, and he wanted to give her a rose again when he did so, even if it was only the construct image of one. Before the burning time's light failed completely, and continuing under the moonslight, he harvested ripe seedpods from the wild vines that now reigned over his once orderly fields. He tucked them inside a protected inner pocket of his great coat. This unruly plant was the anchor of his tender heart to all his memories of love and longing. Whenever he set up a home with Aya, wherever that might be, there would be ramblers, too.

He refreshed himself with journey rations, and drawing the big coat close around him, he laid down by the meager shelter of the rock wall and slept. When he woke, he took to space again, retracing his recent travels.

**_...Ranx:_**

_The ancient planet was still abandoned when he arrived, showing the recent scars of the assault on its surface._

**_...Bertrassis:_**

_Iolande had no information for him, but she agreed to accept some flyers and to ask around for him with any visitors, and to share information with his other contacts._

**_...Maltus:_**

_Maltus orbit swarmed with Salvagers, scooping up the debris of the final battle with the Manhunters. When he could get some of them to answer him, they had seen nothing like Aya... but wished they had, as she would be worth much in their line of business. Barely able to get past his personal distaste for the Junkers, he thanked them for their time and continued his search._

**_...Fluer'Beos:_**

_At the Methane planet, he flew to the dome that he visited with the Greens just after losing Aya. He showed his flyers and questioned several of the unpleasant little goblins, to no avail. He was amused to find the Lanterns were remembered, with reward posters of them in their civilian garb displayed; wanted for various misdeeds. He tucked a copy of the poster behind a stack of flyers in his coat, thinking his friends would like to see it._

**_...Shard:_**

_Zillious Zox had little time for him, and refused him access to other Reds. He did overhear that several of adherents of Rage had defected from Shard, unwilling to follow Zox. Razer supposed he himself provided proof that the Red energy could be left behind, and Zox didn't want to lose any more followers. After this, he decided it was time to strike out into unknown territory, instead of just retracing his own back tracks._

**_Sarauld:_**

He visited dozens of worlds previously unknown to him, asking questions, and posting flyers, with no results. When he approached the life zone of a star in Frontier space that had an inhabited world called Sarauld, he came across a large armed spaceship firing on a freighter. He frowned and contacted the aggressor, "Stop firing, can't you see the other vessel is no match for you?"

The smaller ship sent a transmission, "Please, protect us from the Pirates! They'll kill us all!"

He interposed himself between the two ships, and saw that the larger vessel had a crimson dagger painted on its side with lettering that his ring translated to "_The Bloody Blade_". It was an ominous name, he thought.

"We're no Pirates, Blue Lantern" the larger ship sent. "And you're a fool to turn your back on Ragers."

_Ragers?_ he thought. _That sounded even worse_. He turned back to the freighter, and just registered the Red Lantern symbol emblazoned on it when the freighter fired at him with linear accelerators. He put up a protective shield, and suddenly he was in the middle of a firefight, as _The Blade_ behind him fired around him at the freighter, while the freighter fired at _The Blade_ and him alike. Razer tried to escape the chaos of weapon's fire all about, and nearly made it out from between the combatant ships, when he felt a massive blow to his back and side, and everything went dark...

...With a groan, Razer sat up, hood slipping off his head, and cradled his aching ribs with his arms.

"Easy there, friend," someone said. "You were hit pretty hard. Good thing you had that armor on." Razer looked up; taking in the chamber he found himself in, and the speaker. He was in a large ship's hold, busy with crew receiving goods from an open bay sealed from space with a glittery force field, and sorting them to various locations in the hold.

The speaker was a slender young man with skin the dusky green color of rambler vine, and his abundant black hair tied in numerous plaits all bound together at the nape of his neck into a shaggy tail. His long brown coat was liberally adorned with gold braid, but he wore common spacer's boots and garb under it. The stranger pushed a crate over to Razer with his foot and sat near him in a cubby of supplies against the hold's edge. His bright yellow eyes over his dark stubbly chin met Razer's deep blue in a direct and friendly gaze. "My name is Captain Ral Drasor, of _The Bloody Blade_, welcome aboard."

"I'm Razer of Volkrieg. That freighter called you a Pirate," Razer said. "Are those goods from their vessel?"

"Yes," the Captain said, nonchalantly. "You've found yourself in the middle of a nasty civil war, Lantern. _The Blade_ is a Privateer, actually. We have authority from the Parliament of Sarauld to use force of arms to protect and supply the citizens of our planet. Those medical supplies were originally looted from our Parliament sponsors, actually."

"_Letters of Marque_," Razer muttered. He'd heard the phrase in some of Jordan's fanciful Terran movies.

As the words filtered through his ring's translator, Captain Drasor nodded. "That's a very old fashioned phrase, friend Razer, but it applies to this situation."

"Why did that 'Rager' freighter have a Red Lantern symbol on their ship?" Razer asked.

The Captain gave him a crooked smile. "It's a bit of a long story. Sarauld has no standing military. Long ago, we did, and waged a continents-wide war that ravaged the countryside. The common folk forced a Dissolution of Forces treaty upon the royal and noble families, so they could only keep a small permanent house guard. Since then, when they practiced warfare between them, they had to hire mercenary units. The Autocrats hired the Red Lantern to be one of their merc captains, but since then he commandeered over half their forces in his own bid to rule Sarauld as a tyrant. He calls his mercs 'the Ragers'.

"I used to be a Red Lantern," Razer said, shrugging at the Captain's surprised look. "What is his name?"

"Ragnar of Bertrassis," Captain Drasor said. "And as a leader of combatants, I can think of no one worse suited to rule than he."

"I agree, Captain," Razer said, "But I do know of a worse ruler, Zillious Zox, the current Red's leader. When I was on Shard not long ago, I learned some Red Lanterns recently broke forces with Zox's crew. Ragnar must have been one of those. He certainly is not welcome on his own planet, which I visited before that."

"You get around, Lantern," the Captain said with a chuckle. "I figured you were trying to protect the ones you saw as the weaker of our two ships, so we hauled you in when the fight was over."

Razer shook his head ruefully. "I should know better than to get involved in an internal war. That's what happened to my home world, after Atrocitus set the warlords against each other."

The Captain waved at some of his crew, and one brought the two some drinks. "I suppose that interference is why you became a Red?"

"When my wife was killed, Rage overtook me," Razer said. "It wasn't until later I learned Atrocitus himself slew her. I started to put anger behind me after that, but only succeeded recently."

"Congratulations. What emotion do the Blues follow?"

"_Hope._ I seek a girl I am... in love with, but I don't know where she is," Razer pulled out a flyer from his inner pocket and passed it over.

"Nice looking female," Drasor said, studying the page before tucking the nano-flyer into his own pocket. "Can't say as I ever seen anyone like her, though, and we really don't have the time to ask around at the moment." He turned up his drink and finished it. "But I was wondering if you could help us with the Red. Since Ragnar is an outsider to our world, the two opposing sides of our Civil War have been working together against the Ragers. We're simple spacer folk, and Lantern rings are more than we can handle. Do you have any advice for us?"

"Ragnar is a coward and a bully, and it would be bad for your people if he got his way," Razer said, and then smiled. "But speaking as someone who _was_ a Red, they become completely helpless in the close vicinity of a Blue ring."

Drasor threw back his head and laughed heartily, "Rage is defeated by Hope?"

"And Hope supercharges the Green of Will," Razer said. "Your planetary politics are none of my business, but I would be happy to do anything to thwart Ragnar's twisted ambitions."

"I was hoping you'd say that," Captain Drasor said. "He's gotten a warship... and it overmatches _The Blade_, though not by much. He can't know you are here; we were jamming all but line of sight transmissions. Were you a Blue when he saw you last?"

"No. That will be our little surprise," Razor said with a grim smile. "Where is he, if you know?"

"His ship is in orbit midway between the two faction's planetary headquarters... and squarely over an ocean." Drasor smiled.

"Ah, and I noticed as I came in system, how very _blue_ your oceans are..." Razer smiled back. "Gather all of your Parliamental ships, and offer an armistice to the other side and ask them to do the same. If the joined native forces outnumber his, he'll leave his ship to cut them down to size with his ring... and I will be waiting."

The Captain stood and saluted him. "Thank you, Blue Lantern Razer of Volkreig."

"This has yet to work, Captain, but the hunter in me thinks the tactics are sound."

...

It took longer than they hoped to get the Autocrats to accept the plan, but the thought of living under a mercenary junta was not acceptable. Predawn over the Rager's synchronous orbit, the Sarauld armada approached _The Destiny_, which Ragnar had made his flagship. "Are you going to make me destroy more of your little toy ships? Because I will be pleased to do it!" Ragnar said.

"Come out and try, Rage-addict," _The Blade_ transmitted.

A streak of red fire shot from _The Destiny_ on a direct line to _The Blade_, the closest and largest ship opposing the Ragers. As globs of raw crimson plasma launched from Ragnar's ring, they were scooped up by a Blue construct vessel, and fizzled out. "What? How is this happening?" Ragnar shouted.

Razer flew straight up from above the sapphire ocean to where the Red had stopped in space. Throwing an energy net ahead of him, he enveloped his foe. "Strike true, Captain," he sent to _The Blade_. "Have you never encountered a Blue Lantern before, 'your highness'? You'll find that your ring doesn't like mine very much."

"Razer! So, you're not longer worthy of the Red Ring, and it deserted you! I would think you'd be on the same junk pile as your little green shadow."

_He means Aya!_ screamed through Razer's brain. He formed a Blue bubble to support the exiled prince as Ragnar's own environmental shield failed. Razer brought them out of the way of the ship combat, and waited. With their commander captured, and facing destruction from their own fellows, the Ragers quickly sued for peace. Razer phased into the bubble and snatched the ring from Ragnar's finger, looking on dispassionately as the Bertrassin vomited up the power of Rage within him, before knocking the Red out...

**_Scar's Hidden Lab:_**

_Sayd supervised a contingent of Corps technicians to inventory Scar's abandoned laboratory for possible usage by the Oans. Flitting around the computer sections, she discovered a sealed module with an indentifying label as an upgrade for the Aya progam. Having heard about the truth of Aya, she coordinated with the Green Lanterns to pass the device to the Blues. Honor Guard Hal Jordan and Sergeant Kilowog eagerly took the Interceptor II on a shakedown cruise to Odym to pass the module along._

**_Sarauld:_**

...In orbit, the native armada arranged for the victorious spacers to take charge of the surrendered ships, and removing the Ragers to face judgement on the planet. The Sarauldians knew what happened to failed mercenaries; they payed or worked off their penalties for losing and then tried to sign up for the next mercenary contract. The off-worlders, including Ragnar, would be shipped off to the nearest world that would take them. There were still matters to discuss between the progressives, and the aristocratic families, but for now, there was a cease fire.

"Brother Razer! Are you alright?" came Saint Walker's voice from Razer's ring.

"Just in time," Razer said. "The fighting is over. I'm in the main bay of a ship called _The Bloody Blade_."

"An... interesting name for a ship," Saint Walker said, as he joined his fellow Blue Lantern with his small package in tow.

Razer was holding a Red ring with an expression of distaste, and maintaining construct bonds on an unconscious male. "This Red interfered in a local civil war, and tried to take over. I agreed to help them, but if he gets another ring, he'll try again, and I won't be here."

Saint Walker smiled. "Remember how I was tracking the ring that found you? It seems another has followed me, as I tracked you." Razer tilted his head quizzically. "Someone on this world lives for Hope."

Razer tossed the Red's ring to his mentor, and looked around for the ship's Captain. "Captain Drasor," he called.

"Razer? Who is your friend?" the Captain said.

"Saint Walker, the one who taught me to purge my hate," Razer said. "I think he brought something for you."

Drasor's eyes dropped to the object Saint Walker was holding, confused. The first Blue shook his head, "Not this," he smiled. "This I brought for Razer. He's referring to this..." A Blue ring swept into the bay, and floated before Drasor. "The ring chooses the wielder, Captain. You just need to be full of the element the ring follows."

"For me?" Drasor said. "I... I don't know if I'm worthy."

Saint Walker bowed deeply, "The perfect qualifications for a Blue Lantern; a lack of overweening ego, and a desire to serve others."

With the Blues giving him encouraging looks, Drasor reached out and took the ring, his Captain's coat turning blue, and the rest of his garb changing to match. "What is needed of me?" he asked them.

"Protect your world and people," Razer said.

Saint Walker nodded in approval. "When your planet's conflicts are resolved, come to Odym where we can give you some formal training. After that, go where your heart leads you."

"Now that's settled, what did you bring me, Brother?" Razer said.

"The Guardian Sayd found it in the hidden labs of the one called Scar," Saint Walker answered. "The label says it's intended for Aya." He passed the package over, and Razer studied the markings.

"Ragnar said something before I knocked him out, that referred to her, I think." Razer said. "He said, he thought I would be on the same junk pile as 'my little green shadow'."

Saint Walker hid a smile behind his hand at the phrasing.

"That reminds me," Drasor said. "Hey! All you out-worlders, listen carefully. The one who can tell us something useful gets preferential treatment. Did any of you come to Sarauld with _that_?" he pointed to Ragnar.

A small knot shuffled forward, admitting their association with the Bertrassin. "Where did you come from most recently, and have you ever seen anyone like this?" He pulled out the flyer he'd pocketed earlier, and showed it to those arrayed before him.

Razer found himself holding his breath, and invoked the calmness of the lake to keep control.

One of the prisoners peered intently at the pictures, "I saw someone... _similar_ to this, on a junker world called Karisc, where Ragnar bought a used spacecraft for the mercenaries he hired. She's not as clean or pretty as those images, but she's that same green color, with armor pieces over it. She runs a repair shop in the capitol. It's not far, really."

With a shaking hand, Razer pulled out the Zamaron hand-comp and checked the progress of the Manhunter virus. No deactivation event had been reported over public bands for weeks.

Drasor removed the mercenary's bonds, "A deal is a deal. Don't do anything stupid and we'll treat you right."

Razer looked at Saint Walker with eyes burning with eagerness, fairly quivering in place.

Saint Walker smiled. "Go, Brother. We have things handled here."

Razer lifted off the deck, tossing the hand-comp to his friend, and tucking Scar's module under his arm. "Get that back to Queen Aga'po. If this doesn't work out, I'll be headed there next." He flew to the stars showing outside the cargo bay; Hope rekindled in his heart once more.

To be continued in **Living for Hope** Chapter 2: **_Salvagers_**.

[*] My story **_Ashen Stars_** describes the progression of Razer's anguished feelings for Aya.


	2. Salvagers

_**Karisc:**_

_...The wrecker from Maltus arrived at the main slag works. Spirals of smoke rose over an exploded smelter, swarming with emergency vehicles and the Boss's Cadre. Waved off to a reserve pile, the tug's metal scrap dumped onto a small mountain of similar materials, and the vessel headed out for another load. Among the clangor of metal junk crashing and tumbling to temporary rests, was a stained Green Lantern battery; the faint pulsing lost in the sooty orange suns-light filtering through the billowing haze of pollution rising from the melting and molding of metals._

_Scrap workers flitted over the pile on grav carts, carrying out orders to remove anything suspect. The recent explosion occurred when an inattentive supervisor allowed a yellow Manhunter's staff weapon into a smelter, damaging it and several others. Among the rejected items were Manhunter remains, their staves, and the battery; all possessing the same Green energy and consigned to a side pile to examine later. The active pile stayed lit as the dull day faded into umber dusk. Well after dark, the workers combed through the scrap, but the pile of Manhunter wreckage was unguarded. After the explosions, who'd want it...?_

...

"Come on, Neyna," the older girl whispered, "it's dark, so you have to stay close, these metal scraps can be sharp. Weyden, help your sister."

"Aw, Falene," the boy complained in shushed tones, "She's so slow."

Falene stopped and glared at the younger boy. "She's your _family_, Weyden. Because of her, you are not alone in the galaxy, like I am." They waited while the youngest girl picked her way to them. Falene was hairless, her rough brick red skin punctuated at her joints by clusters of dark thorns. Weyden and Neyna were lavender gray, with darker ridges that traced along their limbs and across their heads, with wispy pale curls growing in the spaces between the ridges at their extremities.

"After that boom, they sure are watching the main pile," Neyna whispered when she reached them.

"We won't get a chance at any good stuff," Falene agreed. "But they aren't working this pile. Just be ready to duck when they come to dump a load." After fussing over their patchwork camouflage cloaks, she led the way to the reject pile. The others stayed close to her; Falene took them under her wing when she saw them begging in the merchant row. That was a quick way to the workhouses; it happened to the dreg boy that had shown her around when she was left on this dreary world. Falene picked up a long yellow cylinder twice as tall as Neyna, using it to poke around the pile.

A grim faced metal head rolled out in front of them, and Falene had to clap her hand over her mouth to keep from screaming. It settled at an angle, staring blankly past them at the lit haze that hovered around the active pile. Most of the rejects were pieces of this same type of robot, hundreds, or thousands of them in this pile alone and many of the yellow things like the one she held. The glitchy sensor told her it wasn't active, but still contained a power source. Well, building materials were scarce in the dregs.

Falene used improvised tools to open a robot's chest and confirmed it was inactive before ripping out the wires in its guts. Cables and ties to bind stuff together were useful, too. "Get more of the yellow sticks, and robot chests, we can get a bunch of long wires from them."

"These things are creepy, Fay," Weyden said, but used the wires she stripped to bundle an armload of the sticks together to be an easier bundle. Neyna helped as best as she could, she didn't have the strength of the other two, but she was more agile on the unstable surfaces of the piles.

"Hey," Neyna said. "A light! Something's working up here." Scrambling higher up the pile, she shifted pieces of the robot junk, which tumbled on the others. Falene hissed at her, but Neyna ignored it. After shoving, and tugging, she pulled out a bulky... something, which shown a faint blinking green light. "Okay, coming back," she warned, and the others moved clear.

Falene looked at Neyna's beaming face and scanned the little girl's find. "No power source, and no circuitry; I don't know how it makes that light." Neyna's face fell, and Falene put her hand onto the girl's shoulder. "But that's good! Sometimes enforcers scan for power usage in the dregs, and we don't always get warning to turn out our lights. This can't be scanned."

"Yeah, Neyna," her brother said, "You hate it when we have to go dark." Neyna smiled and held the light source closer.

Falene tested the weight of the bundle of staves, wrapped around and around with the wires she took from the creepy robots. "This is enough for tonight, good work!" She and Weyden shouldered the bundle, and Neyna stayed close behind them, shining her blinking light at the ground to see her way.

They waited for an enforcer to pass by before scrambling under the merchants walkways to get to the grimy maintenance spaces under the shops where they lived.

The older girl breathed a sigh, finally able to relax. It was risky to leave hiding, but they made their living by stealing junk to exchange for food. "Weyden, break the bundle apart. Neyna, let's clean this thing, maybe it'll get brighter." Each bent to their tasks, and Falene soon marveled at the deep green metal of the light Neyna found.

The light brightened when they rubbed off the lens grime. "Blinks faster than my heart beat," Neyna said.

Falene widened her dark eyes in pretend shock. "Wow! That's fast!" Weyden chuckled at them while he coiled up wires. "Let's set it up here, so we can see when we're not in our cubbies. Now, let's eat and turn in."

...

_The children shared a sparse meal and then crawled into their bedrolls. There was no one awake to see when the fast flickering light went steady before the dawns. The light burned solid for several long minutes, and then abruptly darkened. Sitting silent in the darkness, it then crackled with Green sparking energies that caused the battery to jump from its shelf to the metal floor plating. The light came back, many times brighter than before, along with a soft buzzing noise that might have sounded like a woman's voice..._

_"Rrray-ay-ayz-zerrrr..."_

...

Aya awoke.

_It was dark_, she thought, and then realized she had no optic sensors... or any sensors at all. Aya used her core self to ascertain her situation. The Green energy crackled again, and she oriented herself, inside a much-abused Green power battery, tumbled onto the floor of a dingy wall space. This was where, but how did she get here? Aya cast her memory back and encountered a discontinuity in her files. She'd been offline for some time.

The only entry on her task list was a simple counting program set at 100% priority. Created to count from a large number down to zero, the program reached the result of nil about an hour ago. After confirming the result of zero, it then executed a hard reboot. Aya had effectively not existed while the count was ongoing, slumbering as a dim spark in the battery until the reboot awoke the archived program.

Made to maintain subspace conduits for the power of Ion to anywhere in the galaxy in real-time, the quiescent battery was a compatible host for her. The reboot reestablished the battery's link to her parent entity, giving her a tap to the practically limitless energy of Ion. How to use that energy was another matter. Moving the object where she resided from within was an effort much like lifting oneself up by the proverbial bootstraps. Aya extended a construct hand from the lens to set the battery upright, and then turn the lens to face the room, finding it more difficult than she anticipated.

Now, why was she hiding? At first, the information wouldn't come, and then she recalled an image of Razer's despairing face as she faded from his arms. _The virus! The Manhunters!_ Was the galaxy still in danger? Digging into the counting program, she found it scanned the Manhunter communications network for its numbers. Each number signified a Manhunter infected with her errant persona interfaced through the network. There could be other Manhunters in the galaxy waiting to activate, but none presently accessed the network, and so, none had her program. She ran the counting program again and received the same results. Aya was singular once more; no other copies of her program existed.

The virus had done its intended job, but she didn't have any idea where she was or how she could make a new body to find Razer. That was her first priority; a body was the means to reach that end. Aya stung with embarrassment and sorrow as the reason she needed the virus filtered back to her. Lately, her existence was a hapless series of errors and faults that proved she still had much to learn about emotions.

"Oh, what are you doing on the floor?" A small red girl-child said as she moved into Aya's view. "I thought I left you up here." The girl lifted the battery and replaced it on the shelf. "Hey, the light is brighter, and it isn't blinking anymore."

"I'm sorry," Aya said, "I don't know how I ended up there." The girl's eyes widened when Aya spoke and she fled around the corner, peeking back in evident fear. She'd frightened the child. "Please don't be alarmed," she said. "I mean you no harm, I found myself inside this battery, just now."

"Falene? Who're you talking to?" another voice said, one with lower timbres.

The red girl withdrew behind the corner, whispering, "Stay back, Weyden, the green light is talking."

"Like a spirit of the lamp?" The third voice sounded even younger than the other two who'd spoke. A small girl dodged the bigger one's restraining arm and pattered to the shelf, lifting up to look into the lens. "Cousin's mother talked of lamp-spirits sometimes." This child was a dull lavender with darker ridges sweeping back from her face, interspersed with rows of downy white curls. Her eyes were a shiny gray; bright and curious.

Aya knew she had to be careful here and talk on their level. "Hello," she said, "My name is Aya. Who are you?"

The girl blinked in surprise at first and smiled. "My name is Neyna. I found you on the pile! Does that mean I get a wish?"

_A wish?_ Oh. The child thought she was... a genie, from one of Hal Jordan's movies[*]. "I'm not that sort of spirit, Neyna. But I can help you because I'm smart and can fix machines. I just woke up, though, and I need to know where I am and what is around that I can work with before I can do much." Aya made quick calculations and projected an image of herself in construct stuff, scaled to be smaller than the older girl, while being larger than Neyna. Aya patted the girl on the head and smiled.

Another child charged at her, an older boy with a similar appearance to Neyna. "Don't touch her!" The first girl joined him, both them standing in aggressive poses, trying to shield the youngest child.

Neyna stamped her foot. "Quit it! She didn't hurt me, and she's nice!"

"I don't believe in lamp-spirits," the boy growled, reminding Aya of an irritated Razer.

"Understandable," she said. "Do you know what an Artificial Intelligence is?"

"A smart computer?" Falene said, narrowing her eyes.

Aya nodded, "Except I'm more than just a computer, I'm a being made of energy, and I live in this battery."

"So how'd you end up in the pile?" Falene said. "No one would junk a working AI."

"I've been offline, asleep, hiding from the robots." Aya frowned in concentration, and extended another construct beam from the battery to make a static image of a Manhunter, scaled in proportion to her current child's size. "They had to be gone before I could wake." She had to release the other image because her own was flickering.

Neyna shivered, "Those nasty things were in the junk pile with you, and those yellow sticks."

With an effort, Aya stabilized her projection, and tilted her head. "Be careful with those, they are the robot's weapons."

Falene frowned. "How dangerous are they? We brought a bunch here."

"Don't open the power chambers, and they should be safe to have around," Aya said.

"Fay, we heard one of the smelters blew up, and then they started picking over that new stuff," Weyden said. "D'you think they melted one?"

"That would be a bad idea," Aya said. "It would explode. What else did you bring from the pile?"

Falene shrugged, "A bunch of wires from the robot torsos. Seemed safe enough."

"Can you bring them to me?" Aya asked. "I can look them over for you, but I'm limited in what I can do now without a proper body."

Falene nodded at Weyden and he brought over his careful coils of wiring. Aya sorted through them, using her knowledge of Manhunter schematics to check for dangers or usefulness. She bent to pick up one bundle that had a small module dangling from it. "This one has a communications transponder on it, and a data port. If you can plug it into a data line, it should broadcast the traffic over the robot's frequency, which I can hear."

The older girl brought over her glitched scanner, and scanned the wire bundle, and the power battery. "I can't detect anything from you or the wires..."

Aya concentrated on the Manhunter transponder and caused it to buzz. "Yet I can affect it. If I can link it to an active computer feed, I should be able to listen, and send queries." She directed her attention to the worn scanner, reaching her Green construct finger to touch it. "I can repair this. It will need disassembly and rewiring, but it shouldn't take me long."

"I don't have the tools," Falene said, "Or I would have tried to do it myself."

"If I withdraw my image, I can project any tool I need from the battery," Aya said. "There are enough spare wires here to replace the ones that are shorted."

"Why?" Falene said. "No one does something for nothing." The girl's words had the bitter tone of a lesson hard learned.

"What do I want in exchange?" Aya said. The girl nodded. "I made several serious mistakes, and I had to take drastic measures to correct them. Now I find myself inside this battery, much diminished from what I once was. I would find the man I love, and I need a body to do that." Her feelings strengthened her will, and she projected an image of Razer in a quiet mood from her memories, sized to her projection.

"We... had a misunderstanding," Aya said in a strained tone, "and he and I were working through that when I had to hide from the Manhunters. I don't know how long I've slept, or where he is, but I must find him." She let the image dissolve and squared her shoulders. "I have learned that a Green... a good person makes amends for the wrongs they've done and works for what they need. I want to help you, in return for what you can do to help me; information, and resources. What do you want from me?"

"Well..." Falene looked at the others. "What do we want?"

Weyden looked down at his sunken belly. "I'd like enough food for once, I'm always hungry. Sis?"

"I wanna a family again," Neyna said, "with parents, an' my own room." She sniffed, "An' a fuzzy pet."

Aya looked at Falene. "And you?"

"What they want needs a citizenship card; without that, we're just 'bio-trash'," the older girl said. "If they caught us they'd put us in a workhouse, trying to earn enough to get out, and we'd never earn enough. No one does." She sighed, "I want us to be legal, so we could not be afraid."

"These things are good to want," Aya said. "And it upsets me you don't have them. Let me help you, and you can help me with my dream." She smiled, Do we have a deal?" She held out her hand, and looked into each of their faces. One by one, they placed their hands onto hers, and she covered them with her other hand. "All for one, and one for all!" she said, raising all their hands. Hal Jordan's movies were coming in handy again.

...

With the transponder concealed in a data-trunk serving the row of shops above, Aya learned about Karisc, the planet she was on now. She'd arrived inside the battery on a delivery of debris from Maltus, where the salvaging effort was ongoing. The people who ran the salvaging operation didn't know what to do any more with the Manhunter wreckage and weren't happy they signed the cleanup contract. She filed that information away as she thought it would come in handy later.

She fixed anything repairable the children had, and accompanied them on their nighttime excursions, gathering items useful to support them or begin her reconstruction. The children weren't hungry anymore, and when they slept, she worked in the planet's data network on designs for her new body. She didn't have access to the sophisticated fabrication capabilities that the _Interceptor_ boasted, but those wouldn't help her now, because she was rethinking her construction parameters.

The experience most useful to her was after the Anti-Monitor blasted her. The entity's blow thrust her outside her components, leaving only a tenuous connection with the shell parts remaining near Razer. Her energy soul rode the crest of the destructive energies; until she snagged a damaged Manhunter in passing, and clung to it, shielding her raw self within its compatible circuits. With that first Manhunter as a basis to cobble together a working platform from the battle debris, she'd set off after her friends.

She thought of Razer's reaction to her in that temporary form, she thought he looked disgusted. It hadn't helped when she returned to her normal body; he reacted as if he'd seen something... _ugly_, something that caused him great distress. She could make a similar makeshift body from the wealth of Manhunter parts available, but such a solution was now unacceptable. Aya couldn't put either of them through that again.

To proceed she needed to incorporate new data. The end game of her current efforts was an organic-style, romantic relationship with Razer, and her present design was simply insufficient. She infiltrated the planetary medical databases, and studied the interactions of organic beings from a mechanistic, functional point of view. What would Razer need from her when she found him, and how could she design her new body to accommodate such needs?

She would need to expose more of her construct 'flesh' than was feasible in her first design without compromising her structural integrity. Her armor components also formed her joints and pivot points, and without their limiting containment, her energies were more fluid than solid. She took inspiration from millennia of evolution on thousands of worlds independently coming up with similar structures for bipedal life forms and decided her framing; a mixture of her old exoskeletal superstructures to 'clothe' her, over an anchoring endoskeleton. From this design point, everything else followed.

...

Over time, Aya taught the children academics, as well as practical things like how to repair items and create tools. She made a comm system of Manhunter transponders connecting the four of them on frequencies no one else could hear. When the workers caught them, the comms were how she learned they needed help. She monitored the children's chatter one evening while she channeled a staff weapon to weld together intricate joints of shaped metal bones to make her new body's underpinning. _"Oh no,"_ she heard Falene say. _"Enforcers! Run!"_

Aya had prepared for this day. Their transponders were heading in her direction, so she put away her work, and took up a position blocking the access crawlway to their shelter. She jammed the battery in a crook of foundation beams above her, and on each side of her lay piles of charged staff weapons. _"Scatter!"_ Falene said, _"We can't let them find..."_

"No, children, come home," Aya said. "I will protect you." She saw Neyna duck under the walkway first. "Behind me," she told the girl, who hurried to obey. Weyden and Falene followed, squeezing past the AI who stood with arms and legs spread wide to prevent any other passage. An enforcer stooped to see where they went and saw the Green glowing woman with a stern glare looking back. He dropped to one knee and fired a blaster at her. She put up an emerald shield to absorb the blast, and lifted a stave to fire back, shooting his weapon out of his hand.

As he flinched backwards, a dozen staves rose under each of her hands, the lit ends massed to create an ominous golden glare shining from the crawlspace where she stood. Other enforcers crowded him, still intent on their hunt. "Let me move!" he yelled. "She's armed! We need back-up!" They made way for him, and bent to see the Green woman with the grim frown.

Aya waited patiently. She had nothing to say to the flunkies; their master would arrive soon enough. Monitoring the planetary data traffic, she knew Boss Kreide was there as soon as he arrived. The audience was here; it was time to begin the show. The metal walkways above her in front of the shuttered shops blasted up and outward as she uncovered the crawlway, revealing her and the floating array of lit staves. "Boss Kreide," she called out. "I would parley with you."

The Syndicate's chief officer moved to where they could see each other. He shuffled into view, his warty skin a multitude of muddy green colors. Under the purple robe's encrusted jewels and fine embroidery, jiggling masses of lumpy flesh were obvious. His right hand boasted a gemmed prosthesis that replaced a missing finger, with rings for the remaining digits connected by fine chains to the gleaming bracelet on his wrist.

"You aren't authorized to be on my planet," he wheezed. "Your little thieves have stolen my resources. I have every right to destroy all of you."

"You may try, but I put to you that would be an unacceptable waste of resources," Aya said. "Our work is more valuable to you than you could save by eliminating us. You cannot properly exploit the salvage of Malthus at present, but I don't have such a problem. I can use these staves as weapons, or harvest their energy to put into power storage, allowing safe smelting. They can even be made into useful items." She nodded to the side, where one of the Boss's Cadre held a glowing half-stave one of the children dropped as they fled. "I can divide the staffs, splitting the energy to both sides to create a light source that will last decades."

He squinted his eyes at her and then gestured to take the object his man held. He examined it, seeing the power switch and dials to control the intensity of the light. A lever in the middle extended a spike from the blunt end for planting into the ground. "Nice work," he said grudgingly, "What do you want for your services?"

"A correction to the problem you pointed out earlier," Aya said. "Legal residence for myself, and dependent identifications for the three children. Our needs are not great; we'll need proper access to provisions, power, and shelter. And we'll require permission to gather salvage from unrestricted areas, so we may earn our living."

"Nothing is free, my dear, and the documents you ask for are valuable. If I grant them to you, you will have to pay off the debt for them," Kreide said with a negligent wave of his hand. "While retaining enough for your maintenance, I suppose."

_"Don't agree to that,"_ Falene said over the comm, _"Like the workhouses, it's a trap you'll never escape!"_

"I have a counter proposal," Aya said. "I will pay the debt by converting a set number of the dangerous materials you brought from Maltus. We will agree to the number of items that will serve as payment, instead of a fluctuating amount of credits I may or may not reach. Treat each item so converted as a Class B good, of fair value in your economy, I propose five hundred as the number."

"Class D! A lesser item, and ten _thousand_ of them!" He shouted at her.

She shook her head. "Since you have no alternative use for them, it would be worth more than that to no longer have to worry about them. I will agree to no lesser value than Class C, or a mid ranged good. One thousand."

He glared for a moment, and said, "Agreed, Class C. Five thousand!"

"Two thousand," she said, "And our other work will be for our own benefit."

"So stipulated, but twenty five hundred items. Final offer," Kreide growled. "I urge you to take it, my dear, before I lose my patience."

She lowered her hands, and the staves darkened and settled once more into their neat piles. Aya came out from the under-space, murmuring over the comm for the children to come after her. She ordered the battery to cloak and follow her as a Green Lantern's battery would. It was far more difficult for her because her virtual form still projected from the battery that followed her, a paradox she would ponder another time. "Where must we go to get our identification cards? If we must go somewhere else, as legal citizens, I presume an enforcer will stay to protect our belongings?"

He gave the quaking children a disdainful glance and shook his head. "An official will bring them to you. You'll get few days to clear out of that hole so it can be cleaned and serviced."

"That will be acceptable," she said. "Will they also be able to exchange floaters for credits?"[**]

He nodded, an annoyed half-smile on his face, "Well played." He turned away, leaving them.

"Thank you," she said. She sat with the kids on the edge of the shop walkways as the first of the orange suns slipped above the horizon. When the official arrived, they each gave their names, kinds, and planets of origin for their data cards, and she converted half their loose floaters to credits. Examining the cards and checking to see they listed all their credits, she nodded, "Start packing, children. We're not moving far, but being legal will make quite the difference."

Falene nodded to the younger two, but looked at her confused, "Where?" She said, following Aya as she walked down the row over where they'd lived. The shop at the end of the row was a Laundry and Bath House, with a monopoly on the heated water in this part of the dregs.

"Here," Aya answered; next to the Laundry was a small, empty shop. She put her card in the data reader, she entered, looking over the living and working spaces in the back, and the merchant space in front. She looked at the older girl, "Big enough, don't you think? I wonder why no one has leased it?"

"'Cause the folks 'round here think the humidity from my Laundry will short out the 'tronics." They turned to see a light brown, spiky-haired man in a wheelchair, in front of the counter of the shop they were examining. He gave them an easy smile, "You'll likely get a good lease rate; it's been empty for a while."

"I noticed that," Aya said as she checked the reader. Turned to Falene she said, "We can buy a year's lease and have credits to spare, plus the rest of the floaters. We haven't yet achieved your goals, but we would be legal, with a proper residence, and funds enough to be comfortable for a while. Does this please you?"

Falene sniffed, eyes welling with tears, and hugged Aya hard. "Yes! I don't even care we're not out of the dregs... just not to have to fear the workhouses anymore."

"I considered that," Aya said, patting her shoulder. "But the better the housing, the farther away from the dregs they are, and from the materials we need." She completed the transaction for a year's lease on the shop, associating the property to herself and her dependents.

Neyna toddled up with a bundle of bedding, with Weyden right behind her with an armful of staves. "This the place?" the boy said, giving a sideways look at the man watching from the wheelchair.

"For now, this is home," Aya said, opening the door for the children to enter with their burdens.

The man wheeled his chair closer to the datascreen, turning in downward to read. "Aya of Oa, heh? My name is Maffis, co-owner of the Laundry with my wife, Laysi."

He nodded to her, and Aya bowed her head. "I am pleased to meet you, Maffis."

"Hey, the wife and I have seen these kids around," he said with a thoughtful expression "There weren't any cooking facilities under there, were they?" She shook her head. "Is the kitchen in the shop furnished with appliances?"

"No," she said. "Why do you ask?"

"So you kids have been eating ready-to-eat, cold food for a long time, right?" he asked them. "That won't do at all..." He swiveled his chair around and wheeled to his own shop. "Laysi! Start that big batch of soup you're making. We got neighbors next door who haven't had hot food in ages."

"Maffis?" A woman came out to the Laundry walkway. Laysi had russet fur, pointed ears, facial whiskers, and digitigrade feet similar to the Terran felines Aya had cause to research on the _Interceptor_ at one point[***], before everything had gone so wrong. She bent and stroked her man's cheek with her own. He turned back and gestured to the AI and the children she cared for.

"Don't think she needs to eat, but the kids need better food and nutrition than they've been getting," Maffis explained. "No offense, ma'am, you've done wonders just getting 'em out of the shadows."

"None taken," Aya answered. "I am concerned about that, but the floater prices of better foods are prohibitively high.

Maffis smiled at his wife, "Since Laysi can't seem to manage to cook for less than a small army, we freeze most of what she cooks." He gave the kids a wink, "But if we have some frequent guests over to share, she'll get to cook more. What says you, Laysi?"

She bounced on her small footpads, "I'd love to cook more often! I'll start that soup now," and ducked inside.

Aya looked down at Falene, who stood tense beside her. She'd been on Karisc long enough to learn the same lesson the girl had, that no one did something for nothing. "And what do you want?" she asked him.

Maffis rolled his chair closer and spoke in quieter tones. "The kids'll tell you we've done what we've could for them. We don't charge 'em to bathe or wash their clothes if they come after hours, and when it storms, we have a bunch of street kids waiting it out in our nice warm bathing rooms. Still, we have to be careful; the enforcers will report us if they catch us, and we can get fined or worse."

Falene nodded, relaxing a little. "What he says is true," she said to Aya, then turned to Maffis. "But why offer to share your food?"

Maffis gave the girl a serious look. "'Cause rumor says your Green lady here is good at repairing stuff... better than I am anyway, and we have cranky boilers that need a little lovin'. So we'll trade what comes easy to her for what comes easy to us." "Besides," he said with a conspiratorial smile, "If legal kids come and go from here, it'll be easier help the others, or get them in here for a washup, heh? This way you don't have to buy kitchen appliances for your shop, and you can kick in with us for food. Everybody wins."

Aya reached out to him and shook his hand. "We have an accord."

...

The bargain with the neighbors proved beneficial. For a few repairs, and money spent on part of the groceries, the children fared much better. Aya had more free time to hunt for and work the materials used to create her new body's anchors, both internal and external. She made certain to transform the many Manhunter components, leaving nothing recognizable.

One difficulty she encountered was a source of portable energy. Aboard the _Interceptor,_ she was always awash with the ship's energies, and she was never away from it for long. When she left on her foolish quest, she tapped the power of the Anti-Monitor shell instead, but now she needed to carry her power storage with her, as a Lantern did with a ring. She relied on the battery for power, but it was awkward to keep it near, especially while being projected from the Green power source.

Aya didn't have a ring, but she used something she discovered within the Manhunters; an ovoid engine core that drew on the same near limitless source as the batteries and small enough to fit inside her torso. Aya devised a cradle for a power core in the center of her chest, held suspended like an emerald heart in front of her flexible spine. Her new construct flesh clung around the channeling inner skeleton. The spine branched out to her shoulders and arms, continued up inside her helm, and down to a pelvis that anchored her legs, conducting the construct flesh even if she removed her armor pieces.

Progress was slow while she focused on the complex construction of the interior supports. The relatively uncomplicated outer components were made last. The day she finished her work, she laid out the components and retreated into the battery. Sparks of Green energies coruscated from it and settled over the skeleton, connecting the joints together and cladding them in construct flesh. If anyone saw her in this moment, she would appear hairless and nude, with her blue eyes alight, and her chest glowing brighter green than the rest of her body.

She summoned her armor, and the pieces flew to her and folded about her. What should be white was still metal gray because she'd prioritized functionality over appearance. For the first time since Aya woke on Karisc, she was untethered from the battery. She went next door to the Laundry, where the children were having their evening meal with Maffis and Laysi. "May I join you this evening? I wanted to show you my work."

"Of course," Laysi said, her tail waving broadly. "Oh, you are lovely!"

"Thank you," Aya said. "All I lack is giving the exposed metal you can see a white finish in my furnace."

"I think you're beautiful," Falene said. Neyna nodded enthusiastically.

Maffis concurred with a deep bow of his head, and Weyden tried to emulate him, as he often did of late.

...

Late at night, Aya completed the final coating of her helm and gloves, baking them in her small furnace to give the shiny white finish she desired. Many of her outer shell components were still in primer or bare metal, smoothed as much as her tools could manage, but incomplete. Between the dawns, she switched the furnace to cooling mode, to temper the shells she would soon be wearing. After the children returned from breakfast at the Laundry, she asked them to watch her don the refinished outerwear. "What do you think?"

Neyna clapped in approval. "Those are _bright_ white," Weyden said. "How're you going to keep them clean?"

"They wipe off easily," she said, "and I can always go next door to bathe, as you do." She put on her weather drape to ward off the day's gritty drizzle, "If you think my components are properly arranged I will go to the market to pick up Laysi's grocery list. Open the shop if you wish to, Falene."

The market was a confusion of peoples, goods, and conversations. Her eyes caught a tall figure in a deep blue hooded longcoat, the vivid hue unusual on Karisc. As she moved among the food merchants, checking off her shopping list, she paid partial attention to the stranger as he spoke with people, or put flyers up on the walls. Gradually she noticed the people he talked to, or those who checked the flyers were turning to look toward her. She waited with a wary frown, facing the stranger as he strode across the market in her direction.

As he neared her, she gasped because her construct flesh flared brightly, and her energy readings shot up to hundreds of times her normal levels. At the same time she saw the insignia on his chest. This was a Blue Lantern, and her tension eased with that realization. The man stopped still before her, staring with pale eyes glinting from the deep shadows of his hood. As silence stretched between them, her eyes widened as she spotted the three marks fanning downward from his lower lip. He raised his large hands, revealing the sharp angles of his thumbs as he pushed his hood partly back. She knew that beloved face, but it was strange to see his gray hair uncovered, and for him not to be wearing Red. "Razer? Is that... you?"

"Aya," he said, his voice deep and breathy. He lifted his ring, frowning at it, and closing his eyes. From the ring, Blue energies flowed, unfolding delicately in the form of a Volkregan flower, evoking a moment from their shared history. "Aya, I have been searching for you, in Hope," A rare smile curled his mouth. Razer released the rose construct and grasped her hands, stroking her fingers with his and drawing her closer. "I love you," he whispered, before he bent down and pressed a lingering caress on her lips with his own.

The tiny part of her attention not utterly devoted to that contact speculated that she had a previously unnoticed fault in her gyro systems, because the planet was beginning to lurch decidedly off true. He wrapped his arms around her as she listed to the side, pulling her even closer before he broke their kiss to breathe. "Maybe you can do this all day, but I need air." Razer laughed then, lifting her off her feet and spinning her around in a tight embrace in the midst of the busy marketplace.

"You came back for me," she said, because it was the right thing to say.

"Always," he answered as he set her back down, "Always."

To be continued in **Living for Hope** Chapter 3: _**Microscale**_.

_"Or, instant family, just add Orphans!"_

[*] Several films were referenced in this chapter, as Aya imprinted on Hal Jordan's cultural references. Disney's _Aladdin_, _Pirates of the Caribbean _&amp; sequels_, _and the 1948 _and_ the 1993 versions of the _Three Musketeers_.

[**] **Floaters &amp; Credits** \- terms used by SF writers like Anne McCaffrey in her Pegasus books. 'Floaters' are coinage/paper money; an anonymous person-to-person exchange of value. 'Credits' are like debit cards. Before becoming legal, everything Aya and the kids sold was for less than it was worth in floaters on the gray market, which they used to buy supplies at inflated prices.

[***] See my story **Rumblings**, available on this site.


	3. Microscale

Microscale

In the market, Razer raised Aya's hand and kissed her fingers. Taking a firmer hold of her hand, he lifted above the ground and looked through the dingy sky. "Our friends will be so happy to see you. Come, let's go," he said, pulling on her gently. When she resisted his pull, he looked down at her, confused.

"I... cannot," she said regretfully. He seemed so excited that she hated to refuse him. But, the children...

"Aya, what's wrong?" he settled down on his feet again.

"Razer, I awoke on this world as nothing but a spark of consciousness trapped inside a Green Lantern battery. It has taken months of work to construct this body out of salvaged materials, and I am not yet done." She gestured at her primer white chest armor, and the buffed gray metal of her shoulder pieces. "The battery was discovered by three children, and I have made bargains both with them, and on their behalf. I'm bound by obligations I cannot just fly away from. I owe labor to the Boss of this world in payment for our legal documents, and I can't leave the children as unsupported dependants."

"I hadn't considered that you might be entangled," he said. "My focus has been on finding you. With my assistance we can complete your obligations faster, and we can leave this dirty world." He put his hood back up and tucked her hand into the crook of his arm, and stepping closer. "Where are these children you've taken into your care?"

Aya blinked, still feeling the wonderment of his sudden reappearance in her life. She finished her shopping list, adding items to it for Razer. He could go without eating much for long periods, but they had enough to keep him fed since she was in the final stages of her self-construction, and could focus on the debt to Boss Kriede. She thrilled to a gentle rumble from him as she burdened him with packages, prompting his habitual sarcasm, "Oh, yes. I had forgotten how much I _enjoy_ shopping with a woman."

"Did Ilana make you carry the groceries?" she asked as she led him to her shop, then looked up at his face for signs of discomfort.

"At least once a week," he said wistfully. Catching her glance, he gave a little shake of his head. "She is in the past, Aya. I will always miss her, but... it's a gentle pain now."

Ahead of them, she could see Falene sitting cross-legged on the shop's front counter, talking with Maffis. When the girl saw them walking arm in arm, her shocked expression prompted the wheelchair-bound man to turn about to see. Razer gave her a side look of low-key mischief, and she immediately returned it. Coming up to the counter, Aya nonchalantly pulled her hand free and put the packages on the counter.

Razer reached into the inner breast pocket of his longcoat, and brought out two flyers. "Excuse me gentlesir, gentledame," he deadpanned. "I'm looking for this woman. Would you look at this and tell me if you've seen her?" He handed the flyers to them. They numbly looked down at the nano-papers, full of descriptions and images of Aya. As one, they turned and looked at the AI, who covered her mouth in order not to laugh. Razer followed their gazes, and started in surprise as if just noticing her. "Aya!" he said, and gave her a quick but thorough kiss. "I'm Razer," he said to them, "and I've been looking for her for a long time."

"_Her_ Razer?" Falene said, a pleased look mixed with worry on her face.

Razer raised an eyebrow at Aya, "Yes. _Her_ Razer. Always."

Aya rose up and brushed his hood back since they were under shelter from the drizzling grime. "I'm not used to your hair being uncovered, but I like you in Blue."

Maffis looked at Aya and made a gesture at the Volkregan, "Didn't you say he was a Red Lantern?"

"He was," she said.

"She purged my heart of Rage," Razer said, turning to her. "And your parting words gave me enough Hope to find you." His mouth quirked, "I had just enough Red power to enter Odym's atmosphere and manage not to land at terminal velocity. Of course, just above the lake I'd aimed for, Saint Walker arrived and the ring failed completely." He made a plunging gesture with his hand with an appropriate 'splish' sound effect. "I don't swim well, as you may remember."

She nodded, "Saint Walker pulled you out?"

"And as soon as he got me to shore, this arrived," he curled his fist to show the Blue ring. "I've been on the hunt for you ever since."

Aya put her hand on his chest, a small frown on her face as she remembered the scars his uniform concealed, scars that she inflicted on him. "You look tired. Are you hungry?"

"I'm too elated to feel tired," he said, "but I could use something to eat. Those steaks you bought looked good."

"Did someone say 'steaks'?" Laysi said unexpectedly. The feline girl danced closer in to the counter to look at the food packages. "Oh, nice! Here, Maffis, carry this." She loaded the packages on her husband's lap.

"Yes ma'am," he said, giving Razer a long-suffering look that quickly dissolved into a friendly grin, and rolled himself over to the Laundry, with Laysi bouncing lightly along, tail swishing.

Razer gave Aya a confused look. She shrugged, "One of the bargains I mentioned. I don't cook, and Laysi loves to. Our shop didn't come with cooking appliances, so I help buy the food, and Laysi cooks for everyone at their place." She turned to Falene, "Close up and get the others. We're having an early lunch."

Falene turned to the open door to their back rooms, "Guys! Lunch!" She hopped down inside from the counter, and rolled down the metal shutters that protected the shop from robbery. She came out after Weyden and Neyna, watching the two younger kid's faces as they spotted Aya holding hands with a tall man in blue.

Weyden stepped back in surprise, but Neyna took one look at him and knew who he was. "Razer!" she said, and wrapped her arms around his middle. "You found him!" she said to Aya.

"No, he found me, child," Aya said. She tilted her head and waited to see how the notoriously short-tempered Lantern would respond to the girl's exuberance.

He lifted a big hand, and patted the fluffy white down that blossomed over her low violet head ridges. He bent and touched her shoulders and gently nudged her back so he could get down on one knee and meet her eye to eye. "That's my name. And who are you?"

"I'm Neyna, and this is my brother Weyden. Aya's missed you. She tells us stories about how brave you are!"

He looked down for a moment before meeting her eyes again. "I'm not really the stuff of stories." Looking up at Aya briefly, he said, "Much of my life isn't suitable for telling."

"Did you do bad things, too?" the boy asked. When they all looked at him, he said, "She said she made mistakes, and she needed to make amends."

"Yes," he said. "There were things that I've done wrong that I'm still trying to make up for. Some mistakes aren't that simple to fix; and making it right becomes part of a process that might continue for one's whole life. This is something we both understand."

Aya nodded, her face serious. Razer stood and put an arm around her, resting his hand on her hip. Her expression melted to a small smile, and she laid her head on his chest for a moment. They were touching far more than was customary for them, not that Razer ever missed an excuse to have his hands on her. Their contacts were deliberate now... possessive. They had come to terms with their feeling for each other, and the touches seemed like unspoken promises.

"Okay, pleased to meet you and all," Weyden said, "But what Laysi's cooking smells very good, so..." dodging around the others he walked determinedly in the direction of lunch.

"I better tell her I like mine lightly cooked before she burns it," Razer said. "My meat should bleed."

"Eww," Neyna said at him as they followed the boy to the Laundry.

He showed her his teeth, "These fangs aren't meant for plants, little one." Impulsively he snatched the small girl off the ground and put her over one shoulder as she squealed and kicked his back. He said to her, "We better get to the food, before I devour _you_!"

"No! I am not food," Neyna said, giggling.

At the door, he waited for Falene and Aya to precede him before he carried the little one inside. At the table he set Neyna down on her feet again. "There you go," he said. "Madame Laysi, could you cook mine rare, please? I've been living on travel rations for..." he looked off, thinking, "...quite some time, now."

"Another carnivore, heh?" Maffis said. "Sometimes I think Laysi's meals could get up again if I bandaged them."

Razer's small smile showed his teeth again, and broadened when he took his barely seared steak. Aya sat with them as she sometimes did. She needed only energy to exist, but she learned on the _Interceptor _that mealtime conversations filled important social needs for her friends. Razer did his best to fit in to this new group. He spoke of her former crew's excursion on the Methane planet, while glossing over the desperation that made it necessary. He told the story for laughs instead, and delivered the punch line by showing the wanted poster.

Afterwards, the children helped with the clean up, while Laysi excused herself and returned with a bundle of blankets and pillows. "She doesn't need to sleep, but I bet you do. These things went unclaimed, so you can have them. They're clean, promise! I put them in sealed storage waiting for them to be picked up."

"Thank you, my sleep has been as hit or miss as my meals..." he accepted the bundle, then turned his face into it as he yawned hugely. "Excuse me."

Laysi laughed. "Take your man to bed before he falls down," she said with a wink

Razer cleared his throat, and Aya said. "If he falls, I shall carry him."

"You have before," he said. "But I don't think it's necessary today."

She took his arm and walked back to the shop with him, the kids running around them excitedly. "Falene? I don't think he can wait for our usual sleep time, so can I ask you to make sure they go when it's time?"

"Sure," the older girl said with a smile. "You're going with him?" Aya nodded. "Okay, goodnight."

After exchanging goodnights with the children, Aya took him to the room where she recharged and did her work. Her small furnace/forge occupied the far corner with the old Lantern on top, and a wall nearby was taken up with a large pegboard and shelves for her tools. More shelving held devices in various states of repair. Most of the middle of the room was a bare plascrete floor, marked here and there with burns and gouges from her engineering efforts. Razer gave a hard look at a large bundle of Manhunter staves in another corner. "What are those doing here?"

"Draining, destroying, or converting the staves into something useful is the price we are paying to live in the open in this society," she said, while she rearranged several shelves to clear room to store his bedding. "This world is where the Manhunters were taken to be scrapped, and a smelter exploded when they tried to melt one of the staves. My ability to work with them was the only leverage I had to get us in a better place, one where I could make my new physical body." She rolled out a dense but yielding padding as the basis of his bed, suddenly feeling shy around him.

He ducked his head and busied himself arranging his bedding. Razer put an object from a large side pocket on a shelf, and hung up his long coat. He sat amidst the blankets, only then raising his gaze to her, standing to one side and wringing her hands together. "Will… Will you join me, Aya?" His pale cheeks held a trace of color, but his eyes burned fiercely.

She hesitated, then bent to remove the armor from her legs and feet. Bare from her thighs to her toes, she looked back at him, catching a look of incredulity on his face as she took the few steps on his bedding to reach his side. Sitting before him, she waited for him to find his words. "I didn't know you could do that," he finally said. His blue covered knuckles brushed over a green exposed knee, trailing lightly down her shin to trace the contours of her uncovered foot.

She shivered, and had to grip a handful of bed covers to steady herself. She'd worked an enhanced tactile system into the refit, but she didn't expect it to affect her like that. "I… couldn't, before. This body is redesigned… to more… closely function like an organic life form."

"You didn't have to do that," he said, covering her hand tangled into the covers with his own.

"Yes I did," she said, and stroked his marked cheek with her free hand. She leaned into him, inviting his kiss, tilting her head as she'd learned from observing organic laisons. His mouth met hers and his arms came up to embrace her tightly. Each kiss was different, she realized, and she eagerly anticipated cataloging each and every one she shared with him.

Once more, Razer broke the kiss for air, and yawned so hard he ended with his forehead on her shoulder as he chuckled quietly. "I can hardly stay upright, I'm so tired. A good meal, the closest thing to a proper bed in weeks, and you..." he settled down on his pillow, and gently pulled her to lie beside him. "...are all I need or want, right now. Love you."

"And I love you," she said, watching as his eyes slid shut to the sound of a deep and satisfied sigh.

His breathing and heart rate slowed into the rhythms of sleep, his arm still firmly curled about her. She didn't know what to expect of their reunion, as the misunderstandings between them far outnumbered the things they were clear about. One thing about which they were in harmony was this closeness; they had been apart for far too long. She was content to lie with him for a few hours, or whenever her energies recharged from proximity to the Battery.

A little more than three hours later a processor indicated she was fully replenished. She sat up beside him, taking in his form; noting the hollowed cheeks and lanky gauntness of his body. His quest for her had certainly taken its toll on him. She quietly rose, restoring her armor and did some tasks that didn't require making noise in the room where Razer was sleeping. Hours before the local dawn she heard her name called, so she went to kneel down at his side

"Hello, Razer," she said softly. "Did you call me?" He looked at her as if she might vanish at any moment, then raised his arms to draw her to him. At first, he just held her closely, then kissed her deeply. When he drew back, she smiled and said, "Every kiss is different. I didn't know that before."

"And I will gladly give you as many as you desire," he said.

Her hands spread over his chest again, a small frown on her face. "Will you show me your scars?"

He covered her hands with his, "Why do you want to bring up the past? Just... let it be. I forgave you."

"I haven't forgiven myself. We didn't have time to... talk everything out before the virus took me. The only matter we settled in that brief time was admitting that we loved each other." She lowered her head. "I have thought of my regrets in my time on this world, and they are numerous," she pressed on him a little harder, "...but this is the worst: that I hurt you, almost killed you."

He made an annoyed sound, "As I was approaching to kill you! That's what I thought Jordan called for me to do." A tear welled in his eye that he impatiently shook away. "I couldn't do it... the dagger melted out of my hand. I had no hate for you, no matter what you'd done." Drops of moisture spattered on their hands, and he looked up to see tears tracing down her face. "Aya, please don't cry. You also healed me, remember?" He held up his Blue ring, and vanished his uniform, leaving him in his civilian clothes, without the hood. He reached down and pulled off his tunic, baring his chest.

She looked down to find his scars had faded. He would probably always carry them, but they didn't seem to bother him. "I need to say this;" she said, "I am so very sorry for all the hurts I have caused you, and I will spend my existence attempting to make up for every one."

"Aya... I am not blameless in causing harm. It was my foolish fears that prompted you to turn dark. You were hurt so badly that you denied your pain, and wanted to end all pain for everyone. That is the guilt I bear... and my only Hope, is that together we can return some light to each other, and to this Galaxy."

She clung to him, tears still flowing, feeling his arms wrap tight around her. Part of her wondered at how his touch calmed the pain she bore within. It made no logical sense mechanically. The only answer was the spark of life she'd been given; somehow it blended with his own lifeforce when they held each other and served to soothe both their battered spirits. Eventually she lifted her head and kissed him under his ear, and followed it with a soft nip. "What you saw with my legs?" she said softly, "most of my outer armor can do the same."

Razer hissed at the nip of her teeth, but her words triggered a confusing response from him. "No! Aya, I don't think of you... carnally, like that. We're not... alike, in that way." He shook his head vigorously. "What we have is a... spiritual love." He held her chin, looking into her eyes, and gave her a sad smile, "And that is enough."

She stared back blankly, utterly confounded. Then a flower of anger bloomed inside her and she jerked her head out of his grasp, then pulled away from him and stood. "How unfortunate," she said in a tone that fairly dripped icicles, "that I have wasted months of research and construction efforts to ensure this new form is enough like you, _in that way_, that I could be a more compatible mate for you. It seems that a physical relationship is not what you wanted. I shouldn't have bothered." She turned from him. She didn't know where she was going; she just knew she couldn't stay here another nanosecond.

"Aya, wait," he said as she walked away. "I... I didn't think you..."

At the door of the shop, she turned half back, "You didn't **_think!_** Don't follow me." She stepped through the reinforced door and wrestled with an immature urge to slam it behind her. Her artificial teeth ground together as she sought to restore some order to her thoughts. She lifted up above the porch roof that sheltered the shop fronts, and sat on the peaked roof that rose over the whole line of shops. He didn't follow her; good, he'd listened. She turned her head to check the point where the first sun would rise, and saw the horizon lightening with a dusky brown pre-dawn color. It would be more than an hour yet before it came up, an hour she had hoped to spend doing... more pleasant things than brooding in the dark.

A soft sound caught her attention, and she saw Laysi's hands holding the edge of the porch, then flip her lithe body over onto the roof slope. "Mind if I join you?" the cat girl said, tail swishing in an agitated pattern.

Aya didn't respond at first. "That would be acceptable," she said after a bit.

Laysi joined her on the grimy roof peak, sitting on her heels as her tail extended to assist her balance. "First fight?"

Aya looked over at her. "Not even close." She shook her head. "I... don't understand why he would say that. I thought he would be pleased that we could achieve a closer intimacy."

"I only heard the end of the fight, something about him being a dumbass," Laysi said. "What did he say?"

"That he didn't want me carnally, and that he only loved me spiritually..." She pulled the gauntlet off her right hand, revealing the forearm and hand that matched the fingers visible when she wore it. "I didn't let anyone see my body until I built the outer armor; under it I look like a nude female. I used to be hollow, with these armor pieces filled up with green construct energies and nothing more. When I built this iteration I put a skeleton on the inside, to mimic organics better." She made her green flesh translucent, letting Laysi see the intricate metal jointing structures that lay under it.

"Oh, that is such beautiful, delicate work," Laysi said.

"Work meant to allow for certain... _orifices_ I was not previously capable of. I needed to able to control my 'flesh' while not inside the armor. It is generated from within now, not contained from without." Her bare fist struck the peak next to her, denting the metal. "There is so much we need to talk about, but I thought on this at least we agreed on, that we loved each other." Her head dipped, "I put so much planning and effort into being a better match, and he just dismisses it..."

"Aya... would you listen to some advice?" The computer's lambent blue eyes turned to her as Aya nodded in assent.

"From what I understand of your history, there was a big rift between you, and no time to think or process while he tried to heal that division, then he'd no sooner succeeded at that when he lost you again. Every waking moment since has been spent in search of you. You've had time... months of time... to think about all the permutations possible between you now, but he's barely even registered he's found you. Your previous lack of... compatibility with him is something he's obviously thought about, and he decided that what was between you was worth pursuing even if you couldn't love him physically. Do you know what a gift that is?"

"I... don't understand," Aya said.

"Maffis can't walk. Well, he can't do some other things, either. I'm easy to please; he's very good with his fingers and his mouth even if we can't have intercourse. I can pleasure him as well, but his conditions make it more difficult. He often wonders why I stay with him. He can't make love to me, his seed can't impregnate me, and he loves kids as much as I do. But I love him, and he loves me, and what we _can_ do, and the joy we bring each other is enough. Don't you see, Razer's saying he loves you so much he will be celibate for the rest of his life, for you."

"That isn't necessary, what I did..." Aya said.

"...Isn't something that he knew about when he came after you. You've only just introduced the idea that there might be more possible between you. He's put you up on a pedestal, perfect and pure and cerebral, and he wasn't prepared for you step down off it, shake your pretty ass, and offer him 'carnal' relations." Laysi's tail curled around to her front, and she sank her fingers in the plush fur of it.

"I've seen you watching the streetwalkers, like they are a puzzle you need to solve. They accept credits for a physical act of intimacy, but there is no love involved in the transaction. Having sex doesn't require it. And yet, love doesn't require sex, you see; Maffis and I are proof of that. The important thing is to talk your problems out." Laysi released her tail and pointed her toes as she stood up on the peak. "We're both aware our respective menfolk are on the boardwalk below us eavesdropping. So go talk to yours, because I need to give mine a good cuddle." Laysi walked to the edge of the porch and flipped down to the boardwalk.

Aya flew down after her, seeing Razer standing in the doorway of their shop, still shirtless and highly flustered. In front of the Laundry, she could hear Maffis crying in his chair, as Laysi embraced him and murmured reassuring things. Razer moved, and her head swiveled back to him. He held out a pale gray hand to her, with his knobby knuckles and pointy claw-nails shaking slightly. His eyes met hers, his gaze heated and moist, as if he was near to tears himself.

When she put her bared green hand in Razer's, she remembered she was still holding her right gauntlet in her other hand. Gently he brought her hand to his mouth, and put a kiss on the back of it, then turning it over, quickly licked the center of her palm. She gasped, the soft warmth and wetness of it sending frissons of sensation to her enhanced tactile sensors. His face lit up with a small smile of approval at her reaction. "We have a lot to talk about," he said, his voice husky and deep. She nodded, and returned with him to her... to _their_ room.

Sitting beside him in the covers again, she asked. "Was she right about you?"

He rubbed the back of his head, "Very much so." He sighed, "Just... Remember the first time we went to Betrassis, and we were sneaking around, and I pushed you down to avoid the guard?" Aya nodded, a slight frown on her face.

"Yes, that's the expression I remembered," Razer said. "I thought you didn't like to get... dirty. You were so clean and white..." he grimaced and turned his head, "...that was part of why it hit me so hard when you came back in that... Manhunter mishmash... you looked... corrupted... defiled... that bothered me so much. _Hurt_ me to my core. And... to you it was nothing, just a temporary inconvenience. It was wrong of me to hurt you then, but I just couldn't deal with it..."

Aya tilted her head. "What I objected to was your rudeness, not the lack of cleanliness in the vicinity," she said.

"Oh," he said. "When I was looking for you... I resolved that... Organic bodies are... messy things. They produce any number of... unclean substances... and I felt you were too pure for that... it sounds foolish when I say it out loud..."

"Razer, _I was the ship_. Even in chambers where I didn't have visual access to, I was aware of all my crew and monitored their daily routines: From their drooling as they slept, to their injuries and other illnesses, to their bathing and alimentary needs." His eyes grew wide as she spoke. "I know about organic secretions. It's the reason I made sure the acidity level of my body's various lubricating fluids was of a similar pH value to yours, as well as non-toxic to you."

Razer shook his head in disbelief then buried his face in his hands and. "It's so hard to wrap my head around this... Did you document your build?"

She smiled. It was a good sign he was taking an interest in the technical side of things. Once he saw the thought and craft she'd invested in this, maybe then he'd believe... She handed him a data-tablet that contained all the research and design she'd done, as well of images of the work in progress. Aya watched as he looked through the data, sometimes going back to previous sections, then skipping ahead to her current status. He sighed, and put the tablet back on the shelf.

"Show me," he said, so she did, banishing all of her armor pieces at once, and standing them to the corner like an echo of the way she used to be. His eyes roved over her smooth green curves, bare of any hairs. He ghosted his hand over her bald scalp, and ran a gentle finger along her collarbone, from one shoulder to the other. He pulled her close to him, bare chest against bare chest, giving a ragged moan as he did. His pale flesh goose-pimpled, and his every hair stood on end. He made another sound, almost like a whimper. "This..." he whispered. "Skin to skin. I thought I would never feel it again."

She could hear as well as feel his pounding heart. She leaned back, and traced her hand down his arm before taking his hand and placing it on the breasts she'd planned with such care. Razer squeezed gently, testing their pliability, then with a small smirk, used the breadth of his large hand to softly flick both her nipples at once, one with his fingertips, and the other with the side of his thumb. She gave an undignified squeak, as the sensation overflowed her previously established tactile stimulation buffers.

He chuckled softly. "That was an interesting noise."

"This is all so new to me," she said with a small look of embarrassment.

He took her mouth in a deep kiss, probing her with his tongue, "We'll learn together." He pulled her back against him, when they both heard the morning alarm go off in Falene's room. He met her gaze as they shared a look of chagrined disappointment. "...Later."

"We have the rest of our lives," she said, as she handed him his tunic, and summoned her armor to her. He put on his Blue uniform, and donned his long coat. She opened their door and greeted the sleepy children. "Good morning children..."

Razer settled easily enough into their routines after that: Meals at the Laundry, gathering raw materials, crafting power packs or other goods, and selling those goods at the shop. They began their evenings after the children's bedtime with finishing the coatings to her components, then afterwards carefully exploring each other. He felt that at first, their time was best spent learning about each other's physical responses. She had to admit it made sense, so she acquiesced to his experience in such matters.

When he lay down to sleep, she would lie close beside him to recharge, although she always finished well before he was ready to get up. She would get up and perform tasks in the rest of their quarters until alarms woke the organics of the household. More than a week after he found her, she was getting ready to rise after recharging when she noticed he was moving restlessly. His brows furrowed tightly and anxious sounds escaped him as he fisted his covers. Aya had watched him dreaming before, but this didn't seem to be the same; this looked... unpleasant. Unsure of what to do about yet another unfamiliar organic experience, she watched over him, ready to do... something... if he needed her to.

_Before he opened his eyes, he knew where he was and what was happening. It was a dream, and he knew that he was dreaming. It was the same dream, the one he always had when he relaxed too much, or dared to become too happy. As always, he could smell the scents of his lost home, on Volkrieg; Wood polish, warm furs and good clean sheets. He was in bed with his wife Ilana and his breath caught in this throat as his heart pounded with dread._

_He could feel her beside him, turned away from him where he lay on his back, and he knew what came next. A thousand times he had this dream, and he had never been able to change the sequence of events. He would turn to his side behind her, place a hand on her shoulder, and turn her over to face him. He _had_ to turn her; he always had, and likely always would. Put into words that didn't sound so bad, but what terrors came next he could never predict, and he cursed his sadistic imagination for the gruesome variety the dreams displayed._

_There's no warning, no hint beforehand; No scent of blood or decay, no trace of smoke. When he turned her over, the peaceful quiet of their darkened bedroom transformed into a scene appropriate for whatever horrific visage his action revealed. Sometimes she was freshly slain, gouting her life's blood over him. Other times she was a rotting corpse, or a dusty skeleton. Occasionally she was on fire, flesh blistering and peeling away from her blackening bones. Never, never was she alive in the dream, showing him a glimpse of her as she was in life. The spider prison's torture was far better than these dreams. The device only replayed his memories of her and never ventured into the realm of these guilty fantasies._

_The next unknown was how she reacted to him. Does she rail at him, blaming him for his failures and foolishness? Or does she simply lie still, dead eyes staring in silent accusation? As traumatic as those possibilities were, they were better that the alternative of her reaching for him in an obscene parody of desire, and mounting his helpless arousal despite his disgust, compounded by further guilt if the dream culminated in a sexual release._

_All of these things crashed through his mind as he reached for her as he must, knowing everything that could happen, and everything he experienced in previous night terrors, but unable to stop. In agonizing slowness, his hand settled on her shoulder, applying gentle pressure, turning her to face him..._

Aya was becoming concerned about Razer. His heartrate and respiration indicated levels of distress she had rarely observed in him. He groaned as he thrashed in his covers, shaking his head in denial of whatever he was seeing. His pale hair was dripping wth sweat when he reached a trembling hand out to her. This, at least, was a signal that she felt qualified to respond to. She took his hand and squeezed it, "It's alright, Razer, I'm here."

"Aya? Oh, it's you," he mumbled, and with a great sigh he relaxed, tugging at her to lay beside him again. Razer pulled her into his embrace, and turned her beneath him with a tender smile curling his lips before he bent to give her unrestrained kisses. His tongue caressed hers, as bold hands roamed her in a way she'd never experienced before. His hand drifted down her smooth belly to the sensitive flesh between her legs, causing her to go into an almost continous recalibration cycle of her sensation buffers. He rolled his hips firmly against her, then made a noise of frustration, as his seeking hands were abruptly employed to removing his civilian trousers. It wasn't until he exposed his rampant erection and reached for her again did she begin to suspect that he had never really awakened, and that he was still dreaming...

_...As he turned her over, something was different... her voice, the feel of her body, even her scent were altered. The feminine shape next to him opened lambent blue eyes, dimly lighting up her construct flesh from within. The setting was still his cozy home on Volkreig with starlight glimmering into the windows and cheerfully smouldering coals banked in the fireplace, but the woman in his bed was Aya, not Ilana._

_Suddenly all his dread melted away, because in this scenario he was no longer the villain. The dynamics between him and the former Navcom were complicated; he'd made mistakes, but Aya had erred as well. Aya and he were on a relatively equal footing, instead of the unambiguous guilt he felt for Ilana._

_She was soft, warm, and_ **alive** _in his arms, and it had so very long since he'd enjoyed sex with the woman he loved... He bent to arousing her, touching her with every skill he remembered from better times. She was quiet but responsive to his overtures, and endearingly hesitant in her efforts to reciprocate, but that was all right, this was all new to her. When he judged her ready, he rose above her and entered her, still pleasantly surprised that intercourse was even possible between them._

_The sensations were so sweet, so superior to the times when he desperately sought his own release, unable to deny the needs of his flesh any longer. But... something wasn't quite right. The dream began fragmenting around him as the disconnect between what the dream was showing him and what he was feeling grew... _

His eyes fluttered as he ground his erection against her. She captured his arousal in her hands, and tried to give him the stimulation he needed. Razer's eyes opened fully and met hers as the situation became clear to him. "Oh, Grotz, no," he groaned, and tried to turn away from her, but she wouldn't release her grip on his most private parts. "Aya, please, it wasn't supposed to be like this."

"I don't know how it was supposed to be," she said softly, "but you need me, you need _this_, and I will not turn away. Don't shut me out, Razer; this is what we both wanted." Mortification warred with shame in his eyes, and she pleaded, "Please, _let me help you._"

He squeezed his eyes shut, and a moan escaped him as her warm hands continued to stroke along his length. "Ah, that feels so good," he said. Razer was shuddering, unable to stop thrusting into her grasp, a conflicted growl rumbling in his throat. He shook his head, and she feared he would put an end to this moment, and that if he did it would cripple the intimacy they were slowly building between them. He looked up, meeting her gaze with his dark blue eyes full of desire and vulnerability. "Help me," he whispered before he kissed her hotly.

He wrapped his hand around hers, and demonstrated how he liked this, what speed and pressure he needed to climax. She absorbed every nuance, watching in fascination as his lanky body writhed and twisted under her efforts. He hissed as his body arched in tension as his release took him. Finally he relaxed, his breath coming in tearing gasps. He wiped her hands dry, and draped the cloth over his lap, as he drew her into a close embrace. "Thank you, Aya," he said, as his eyes drooped with weariness as he slipped back to sleep.

"You are very welcome, my love," she whispered. Maybe this would work out after all...

_In a dark corner of the central bazaar of Karisc's capitol lurked a cloaked figure. The last mysterious stranger to arrive had made minimal impact on the market. The shoppers and sellers just flowed around him like rushing water around a boulder. This one though, made waves. Residents avoided the tensely moving figure, stalking the boundaries of the market, tearing down and destroying the now tattered flyers Razer posted in search of Aya. The people of the market shuddered and looked away from the twin points of furious red that glared from under the hood._

_Bleez shadowed Razer's movements across the stars as he went about his ridiculous quest, following the breadcrumbs of his flyers. She had fled the Red Lanterns after that pompous pustule Zillius Zox named himself their leader. She had a grudging respect for Razer, and hoped to form a competing group of renegade Red adherents alongside him. It wasn't bad enough he'd taken up with Greens and that robotoid hussy, now he'd given up his Red ring for an inferior one of Blue. What was he thinking, and what was his obsession with the walking computer?_

_She could find no more flyers when the humanoid mechanism in question appeared at the other side of the market. A dull gray cloak shielded Aya from the caustic mist, but there was no mistaking the vivid Green and white under the cloth. It was her, the feminine machine who'd beguiled Razer of Volkreig away from his proper path! With a shriek, she tore off her shroud and leaped into the air, wildly throwing around bolts of crimson rage at her enemy, flapping her tattered wings as denizens of the market ran away screaming._

*.*.*

It was just another trip to the market for Aya, as it was her shop's turn to buy food. Razer was on an excursion to the salvage piles with the older children. She consulted her list and plotted out the optimum path when a sharp noise and a flash of Red caught her attention. She spotted Bleez as the Red Lantern dove down at hers snarling, ring thrust foremost. Aya dodged, seeing the Red was focused on her as a target, thank goodness, but her indiscriminate blasts were leveling market goods and the tables that held them. Bleez crashed into her as Aya's attention wavered, and clawed and struck at her in their clinch.

Aya seized Bleez in return and soared to an altitude high above the shops and other buildings in the surrounding neighborhoods. She drew her fist back and punched the harpy in the face, then took hold of one of her helmet horns, and pushed Bleez's head vigorously down to meet her lifted metal-covered knee. A part of her noted how much more physical she was while fighting. The change in tactics from the last time they tangled on Bertrassis only gave the Red a momentary hesitation before Bleez threw her off and began blasting at her with Red energy.

The last time they'd tangled, it was a relatively even match, but Aya soon found herself out gunned. The Manhunter power core within her chest wasn't channeling Ion power to her as fast as she could from tapping the great battery of the _Interceptor_. Bleez sensed the weakness almost as soon as she had and smiled in malice. She kept back, firing energy blasts and occasionally closing enough to kick or strike her foe. Aya had to change to a holding action, and luring Bleez towards the piles, hoping that Razer would notice the battle before it was too late.

_Out on the heaps of debris and salvage, Falene was chattering to Razer about what kinds of junk to look for, and what they often used in their repair business. Razer nodded, seeing that the girl knew her business. He was a handy man himself, a skill he developed on his homeworld, when the wars degraded their society's ability to build new things, so repairing what was needed became the only option left to his people._

_Weyden hung back some, not really in the mood for this today. From their vantage on the piles he looked back to the dregs where they lived, and spotted flashes of bright light. He shaded his eyes with his hand, and watched as bolts of emerald green and crimson red flashed in alternation over their neighborhood. "Fay, d'you see that?" he said, pointing back the way they'd come._

_They both looked the way he pointed, and Razer stiffened as he saw the lights. "That must be Aya, and a Red Lantern!"_

_He bounded into the air and flew at top speed towards the conflict..._

Aya did her best to deflect the damage Bleez gleefully inflicted on her. She kept the Red's attention, because she knew she was able withstand Red Lantern's attacks better than anyone else nearby could. Bleez pinned Aya in mid air, legs cinched around her body, with a tightening loop of red energy twisted about her neck. It was impossible to strangle the AI, but it felt like an attempt at decapitation. Aya clutched at the energy construct, trying to relieve the pressure on her neck supports, when Bleez looked up with a sneer. "Finally, he's coming! Now to dispatch you before he arrives."

Aya heard an oncoming shout of her name from Razer as the amplifying effect of his Blue ring made her flesh blaze Green. The multiplied power surged to her, and she shoved hard at Bleez with enhanced strength to break the hold. Only centimeters separated the women when he arrived, and he didn't slow down in the slightest. A Blue hook caught Bleez, and before Aya could react, the Red and her former compatriot were half a kilometer away, exchanging blows as Bleez's ring sputtered from the proximity of the Blue. In desperation, Bleez broke for the atmosphere, in what would have been a futile attempt to flee if Razer wasn't more concerned about Aya.

He flew back to her, scowling with concern as he took in the cracked outer armor and the unsteady cant of her head. "Why was she here?" he asked as he put an arm about her and lowered them to ground level.

She shook her head, "I don't know. It seemed to have something to do with you." She looked off, content to leave their travel to him, "Like you said of Ragnar, she didn't seem to understand what a Blue ring does to a Red." He settled them down on the pavement by their shop, as Falene and Weyden arrived panting back from the piles. The children exclaimed at the damage visible on their guardian, but shut up abruptly at the arrival of a luxurious aircar with Cadre markings.

A high ranked Enforcer stepped out of the vehicle, "The Boss wants to talk to you two about _that_." He pointed at the market with his chin.

"How convenient, I've been wanting to talk to your Boss," Razer said. The man stepped out of their way, and gestured for the two to enter the aircar. They were whisked to the Boss's Skytower high above the perpetual haze, then escorted to his spacious office. The corpulent entity was watching through multiple screens at the damage done to the market.

"Who's going to pay for these repairs?" Kreide said, with no formalities.

"Take it up with the Red Lantern," Razer said, earning him a poisonous look from the planetary boss.

"Respectfully," Aya said, feeling uncomfortable in her state of disrepair. "Nowhere in my contract does it say anything about taking on security responsibilities, or being liable for their failures. I'm merely categorized as a technician."

Kreide scowled. "If you had any idea this attack was coming, I could hold you liable, adding additional units to your contract."

Razer walked up to the control console, looking up at the saffron banner hung above it. "And we could petition to a reduction of the contract, because it was your people who failed to stop an attack on your territory to a citizen under your protection." He looked at the hanging again. "Nice banner."

Kreide shrugged. "It probably doesn't mean much to you."

"On the contrary," Razer said. "I saw others like it on Okaara. I didn't know that Larfleeze left any of the old Orange corps alive." He looked at the jewelled prosthetic replacing a finger on the Boss's right hand. "But, I suppose after he got what he wanted from you he didn't care if you fled." Kreide's color paled abruptly as Razer spoke. "I did him a favor when we last met, and unstable though he is, he might be amenable if I were to ask him a favor in return..."

The flabby reptile threw his hands into the air. "Just leave! And stay out of trouble!"

"As you wish," Razer said, putting an arm around his lady's shoulders, and drawing her with him.

In the aircar that returned them to their shop, she leaned her head against him to alleviate stress to her damaged neck vertebrae. "This is unacceptable," she said quietly. "I cannot channel power quickly enough, and when my body was damaged before, I could simply transfer to a new one, but that isn't possible anymore. This is the only body I have, and it would take more months to fabricate a spare."

"We'll talk about it when we get home," Razer said. "I may have a solution for you." They arrived back at the dregs, and he helped her inside, letting the crying children see her for themselves.

"Do not worry," Aya said. "The outer armor can be replaced in a matter of days if necessary. The neck components might take a little more time, but it is also repairable. You remember when I was only a light inside the battery? This body is not who or what I really am. It just makes it easier for me to interact with those of you with material, organic bodies."

Falene looked up at Razer, and he nodded. "I've read the schematics, and with two people working on them, she should be whole even faster. We might even be able to improve her."

She met his gaze, "For now, I would settle for functional."

"Understood. Wait here," he urged. He went to their room and retrieved the module he'd put it on her equipment shelving when he first arrived on Karisc. He put it on their living room table, "I brought this with me. Guardian Sayd found it in Scar's base where she programmed you to be a Navcom, after wiping your files again and again. Sayd sent it to Odym, and Saint Walker passed it to me on my last stop, where I got the lead to come here. The coding says it was upgrading technology intended for you."

She lifted the module and studied it. "I can't see how it would be of any help. I was software when she worked on me there, before she installed me into the _Interceptor_." She put it back down, "Even if I trusted the ultimate source, which I most assuredly do not, how could this, whatever it is, be of any use in my current circumstance?"

He shrugged, "We don't know until we look into it more. We've been so... _distracted_... by personal matters, I forgot to bring it up with you." He stroked her cheek, prompting Neyna to say, 'awwww'.

Aya smiled, and extruded an interface wire from her finger to examine the module's information in more detail. She tilted her head, looking off as she sifted through the data. The first clue that something was wrong was when her finger twitched. She looked down at it, frowning, only to see her whole hand quiver.

"What's the matter, Aya?" Razer said.

"I'm not sure... I'm not doing this!" The module abruptly split along its seams, releasing a flood of tiny silver particles so fine as to look like a liquid. The stream jerked in the act of falling, then shifted towards Aya, flooding over her every visible part and giving them a metallic sheen. From the finger that provided the first bridge, a change came over her construct flesh, turning from Green to a pale blue. Up her arm the change spread, and onto her chest to invade the other limbs.

Razer looked on in horror as the change flowed over her face. "Nanites!" he heard her say, before her face altered, taking on a decided scar on the right side, just like that of the renegade Guardian. The last to change were Aya's already blue eyes, and they turned to a blank, dead white.

"Razer of Volkrieg," said a voice that was not her own. It was Scar who was speaking to him now. "I was hoping this trap would find its way to the Navcom. I will destroy all who betrayed me! You, this witless machine, the Green Lanterns, and even my 'fellow' Guardians. A vicious parody of a smile twisted the unfamiliar lips. "Who will I kill first?"

"Run next door, children, and don't look back," Razer shouted. He stood ready to act if Scar tried to prevent them leaving. As they fled, he retreated after them, backing out onto the boardwalk while the construct body stiffly moved after him, as if learning to walk for the first time. When the door of the Laundry slammed shut, he took off into the air, heading out of the settled zones. If Bleez in her fury had caused damage, Scar controlling Aya's body could cause wholesale devastation. He needed to take this confrontation to the wastelands where no one but him could get hurt...

A/N: To quote Cake's "Comfort Eagle" - '_To resist it is useless, it is useless to resist it.' _

Or, maybe even futile? Chapter 4 will be "Resistance".


End file.
